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Hot Curricula: The Lifespan

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DQI Bureau
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Methodology

The survey conducted by DATAQUEST during the fourth week of April 2001 had a

participation of 118 companies comprising IT companies (industry) and 42 non-IT

companies (enterprise). The sample was a mix of medium and large firms.

The firms in the industry segment ranged from biggies like HCL Infosystems,

H-P, Samsung Electronics to smaller firms like SVAM and Organic Software. The

enterprise segment included Hero-Honda, DCM Shriram, Daewoo Telecom, Usha

International, Alstom and Titan.

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The survey aimed at understanding the value Indian industry attaches to

products being churned out en-masse by the informal IT training segment. It also

had the mandate to find out the recruiters’ most preferred IT training

institutes, both in terms of qualifications of a prospective employee and for

their corporate training programs.

Based on inputs sent in by the HR heads of these 118 companies, DATAQUEST

examined the difference in perception between the industry and the enterprise

segments.

While the first part of the survey report on the recruiters’ perspective is

being carried in this issue, the findings on corporate training will be

published in the next issue of the magazine, June 15, 2001.

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Finance, HR are top recruiters among non-IT departments

Finance,

human resources, sales and marketing emerged as the top non-IT departments that

recruit employees with IT skills. Production and support got a comparatively

lower rank, followed by other divisions.

Enterprises more open to institute passouts

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Enterprises turned out to be more receptive than industry

when it came to recruiting passouts from private sector IT training institutes.

60%

of the respondents from the IT industry said less than 20% of their current

employees were taken in with IT training institute diplomas. In contrast, 45% of

enterprise respondents were found recruiting those who had diplomas and degrees

from training institutes.

14% of respondents from the industry said the number of

employees with IT training institute qualifications was between 20%-40%, as

compared to a figure of 24% forwarded by respondents from enterprises.

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26% of respondents from industry and 31% from enterprises said the number of

IT training institute passouts in their firms was more than 40%. That is a

healthy number, and puts enterprises on top again.

IT skills help in non-IT jobs

During

recruitment, IT training does make a difference. This is borne out by the fact

that 89% of industry firms and 95% of enterprise firms in the survey said that

knowledge of IT skill-sets did matter during recruitment for non-IT functions.

Enterprises are more receptive to recruiting IT institute passouts than industry

firms.

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South India Has the Most Training Centers

To determine the strength of top IT coimpanies across geographical divides in

the country, as also to ascertain the market potential of different regions,

DATAQUEST asked five major IT training vendors–NIIT, Aptech, STG, CMC, LCC–to

furnish details on their strength in 16 major Indian cities, stretching across

four regions. SSI, a key player in the market, declined to participate in the

survey and was, therefore, left out of the reckoning.

This threw up interesting results. South India is the hub of IT training

activity. This is followed by the North and West. East India is the region with

the minimum number of centers. The numbers furnished indicate the number of

centers in the particular city.

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This also collaborates another survey conducted by DATAQUEST –the Salary

Survey published in the May 15, 2001 issue–which had shown that a significant

number of IT professionals were from the south of the country. It is observed

that each of the institutes is strongest in its own home turf.

Mumbai-based Aptech is strong in its presence in the West, and also has a

good foothold in the South. Delhi-based CMC and STG have maximum presence in

their home turf, in the northern part of the country. NIIT has a strong foothold

in the South besides its home turf in the North. Calcutta-based LCC has a

significant presence in the east.

NORTH: This is the

home turf of NIIT, CMC and STG. All these players have a strong presence

here. Aptech too has a significant presence with 78 centers in the 4

cities of New Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Lucknow. LCC has the least

presence in this region. Delhi accounts for the bulk of centers in the

North. Chandigarh takes the second spot.
SOUTH: South India is

truly the hub of the Indian IT training industry. With India’s IT

centers, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai in this region, this region

accounted for maximum number of training centers. NIIT, Aptech have a very

strong presence in this region. NIIT emerges as the biggest player in

Chennai in terms of centers, while in Bangalore, Aptech has the highest

number of centers.

EAST: The eastern part

of the country has the least amount of centers as compared to the other

regions. NIIT, Aptech and LCC are among the major players in this region.

Calcutta accounts for a majority of centers in the East. Guwahati has the

least number of centers as compared to the other three cities in this

region.
WEST: It is the home

ground of Aptech, which has a strong presence. NIIT is also a major player

here. LCC, CMC have a less prominent presence in this region. The

commercial capital, Mumbai, as expected, has a majority of the centers.

Pune, with a significant number of educational institutions bags the

second place.

Diplomas are not high on the recruiters’ list

While

the perception survey showed that NIIT is the most favored institute for

recruitment, followed by Aptech, SSI, STG, CMC, CDAC and IBM, in that order, a

significant 26% of industry said they did not consider diploma-holders at all

for job openings. Enterprises, however, do not have such a block.

Quality of training tops preference list

Asked

to pinpoint the reasons for preference in recruitment of students from IT

training institutes–quality stood out as the single-most important parameter

that employers consider during the process of recruitment. It was observed that

while 27% enterprise recruiters were concerned about the stability of the person

being recruited, none of the industry respondents seemed to be worried about the

issue. Sudesh Jain, assistant V-P, Transport Corporation of India, noted that

stability was indeed an issue for his organization, since many of the people

whom he recruited from top-notch training institutes had not stayed in the firm

beyond a few months.

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